We Pretty Pieces of Flesh

A Novel

De: Colwill Brown

Narrado por: Colwill Brown

“A brilliant portrait of female friendship, nearly the equal in honesty and subtlety to Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

An exuberant and ribald debut novel about three adolescent girls, as sweetly vulnerable as they are cunning and tough, coming of age in a gritty postindustrial town in nineties Yorkshire, England

“Ask anyone non-Northern, they’ll only know Donny as punchline of a joke or place they changed trains once ont way to London.” But Doncaster’s also the home of Rach, Shaz, and Kel, bezzies since childhood and Donny lasses through and through. Never mind that Rach is skeptical of Shaz’s bolder plots; or that Shaz, who comes from a rougher end of town, feels left behind when the others begin plotting a course to uni; or that Kel sometimes feels split in two trying to keep the peace―the girls are inseparable, their friendship as indestructible as they are. But as they grow up and away from one another, a long-festering secret threatens to rip the trio apart.

Written in a Yorkshire dialect that brings a place and its people magnificently to life, Colwill Brown’s debut novel spans decades as its heroines come of age, never shying from the ugly truths of girlhood. Like Trainspotting and Shuggie Bain, We Pretty Pieces of Flesh tracks hard-edged lives and makes them sing, turning one overlooked and forgotten town into the very center of the world.

©2025 by Colwill Brown. (P)2025 Penguin UK, all rights reserved.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“With this debut, Colwill Brown announces herself as unforgettable. The music and precision of her language, the fun and fervor of her characters, all of these things make We Pretty Pieces of Flesh a wondrous, luminous novel.”—Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of the National Book Award finalist Chain-Gang All-Stars

“Colwill Brown is, simply, brilliant and original on every level; I haven’t read a first book that floored me so thoroughly since Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-formed Thing. We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is astonishing, as hilarious and wrenching as life itself. Her characters and sentences knock around my brain still, moving, unsettling, indelible. She is a writer like nobody else.”—Elizabeth McCracken, author of The Hero of This Book and the National Book Award Finalist The Giant’s House

“A big, brave, beautiful scream of a book. It is haunting and hilarious and heartbreaking, so tender, so raw, so deeply felt, so full of insight and sympathy and, above all else, so exquisitely written. We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is a rare wonder of a book and Colwill Brown is a writer of astounding originality.”—Edward Carey, author of Edith Holler

A Voicy, Crazy Story

OMG. I've never listened to an audiobook written in such a strong Yorkshire dialect, but this really worked for me! In the poorer section of England, the three young ladies grow up with few boundaries. It was a wild ride as they navigated maintaining their relationships despite problems at home, school, romantic relationships, college (or not), illness, and hurt feelings for various reasons. Coming of age requires establishing personal boundaries for smoking, alcohol, drugs, partying, and sex. And they do their best, despite countless obstacles!

I purchased both the hardcover and the audiobook. I highly recommend the audiobook, which is narrated very convincingly by the author. I don't know how many narrators could nail the Yorkshire accent this well, but I read somewhere that the author lived there — and it shows.